It's raining in July at the Macdonald ranch. Here it proves a welcome sight, damping down dusty roads and dry grass. Any rain in drought years seems precious. We are almost certainly undergoing some sort…
Posts published by “Malcolm Macdonald”
“The whole landscape appears to have been formed by some mighty convulsion of the earth that has thrown up numerous spurs or broken ranges of mountains to the height of from 7,000 feet to 9,000…
It’s long forgotten now, but prior to the start of fiscal year 1847 there were no postage stamps in use in the United States of America. Before July 1, 1847, the receiver of mail paid…
June 24th brings us to one of the littlest known stories about major league baseball. It began in Ipswich, County Suffolk, England in 1854, on July 24th, with the birth of Richard Higham. Before Dick…
The Pacific-slope Flycatchers who entrusted a corner of this ranch house for their nest have fledged their baby Flycatchers and moved on, leaving behind a beautifully constructed, but empty, nest. It's possibly the same Flycatcher…
On June 10, 1881, a fifty-two year old count draped himself in the garb of a peasant and set off down a dust covered, rutted road. The count had been in something of a spiritual…
Transparency has become a buzzword to serve the purposes of politicians or those who oppose them. In Fort Bragg, California, it is one of the rallying cries of citizens seeking the ouster of the mayor…
Timber fallers can be heard less than a mile north and slightly west of here. I walked through their handiwork last evening, a far neater job than I've witnessed on the lands of the predominant…
Buzzards swoop on the wind drafts in the draw that extends from below my house to the bottom lands next to the remains of Uncle Charlie’s cabin. The same wind currents that provide the swirling,…